Dollar Tree Cinema: High Moon

 “High Moon” (2019)
Starring Chad Michael Collins, Chelsea Edmundson, Matthew Thompkins, Sean Patrick Flannery
Written and Directed by Josh Ridgway
Not Rated, but enough violence, gore and language to easily earn an R

If you found a movie about about a cowboy brought back from the dead in modern times, hunting a six pack of similarly resurrected werewolves, would you buy it for $1.25? If the movie was entitled “Howlers” … maybe.

But what if it was called “High Moon?” Could you leave it on the shelf?

“Howlers” was the original title, and what the movie's filed under on IMDb, but at some point, they changed it to “High Moon,” and whoever is responsible deserves one of those honorary Oscars. But does the movie itself live up to the title? Could it?

Fair warning, this is going to be a spoiler-laden synopsis, because I can't work through my feelings on this one by being vague.

Howlers is the name given to the werewolves being hunted by cowboy Colt. He's played by Collins, who did not, as I initially thought, appear in “One Tree Hill” or “Agent Carter” but did lead several entries in the “Sniper” franchise. These werewolves massacred his unit in the Civil War and killed his wife. After defeating them and their leader, Willie Price (Tom Zembrod), in the opening sequence, Colt is rewarded by his Chinese ninja master with the sweet release of death.

I know ninjas are Japanese but I saw him before I found out he was Chinese, so, in my mind, he's a ninja.

Death proves temporary for Colt and his adversaries, who awaken in present-day Temple Wells, Texas. The town drunk, or an outdoorsy fisherman depending on who you ask, is mauled to death, off-camera, by the werewolves, while Colt is discovered by a young widow named Lucy (Edmundson). She's kind enough to give him her late husband's guns and silver bullets,* but does have the presence of mind to fetch the sheriff (Thompkins), who already has a lot on his plate, what with the murder and his wife cheating on him with his ex-partner who also happens to be the mayor (Flannery).

Sheriff Ethan Hardy doesn't find Colt as likable as Lucy does, but he also doesn't seem too concerned when Colt takes Lucy hostage at the scene where a group of bikers was massacred by the werewolves – who stole their outfits, kidnapped their girlfriends and made the sole survivor teach them to ride. While his daughter's friend walks off with an armed man he believes to be crazy, Hardy gathers his deputies and comic relief good old boy Walter to track down the killers at “the old machine factory.”

Two deputies are killed (one off-camera) and Colt saves another pair, prompting Hardy to have everyone regroup back at his office … leaving the dead deputies and murdered biker girlfriends at the scene and at least five violent homicide suspects at large.

Colt tells his story of fighting the Howlers and suggests the magic scepter he used to kill Price is the reason they were all brought back to life. It's also the only way to kill them for good, again. Although Lucy and others in the party are inclined to believe him, Hardy does not. He orders the cowboy taken to jail and then … goes home to visit with his daughter. His wife is dumbfounded that he hasn't mentioned the multiple murders to her, or apparently anyone else in town, all day. I know we're not supposed to side with the unfaithful wife, but this one has a point.

The werewolves attack the jail and kill Walter and one of the two remaining deputies. Hardy reluctantly agrees to believe Colt and what's left of his posse: Lucy, the town doctor/coroner and surviving deputy Terry, who assures everyone she was scratched in the attack but not bitten. Hardy decides the best place to make a stand against the werewolves is... the mayor's place. Because a roving gang of murderers, supernatural or not, just doesn't create enough melodrama.

Thompkins, Flannery

Not only is the mayor (Flannery) a jerk who betrayed Hardy both personally and professionally, he's smuggling automatic weapons. But Hardy agrees to turn a blind eye if they can use them against the werewolves.

As they wait for night to fall and the Howlers to arrive, Colt and Lucy flirt and Deputy Terry volunteers to take the strippers hanging out with the mayor to work. En route, they're attacked by the Howlers, who turn them into werewolves rather than kill them. The ladies return to the mayor's place and launch the first wave of the attack, biting the sheriff.

Colt offers to trade himself for the scepter to stop Hardy's transformation, because I guess it can do that too, but Price responds with gunfire. One of the Howlers gets into the mansion because it said so in the script, kills the doc and slashes Lucy.

Having learned to drive that morning, Colt takes a car and leads the three surviving Howlers on a chase to a wooded area where they proceed to have a showdown in daylight. He sends Lucy off into the woods so she can reappear dramatically later and manages to kill Price's henchmen, who couldn't shoot the broad side of a barn.

Then, Colt and Price, all wolfed out even though it's daytime, go mano e mano, and Price gets the upper hand, gloating that Colt would need the scepter in order to kill the last Howler. Not surprisingly, he gets stabbed with the scepter by Lucy... who says with a gravelly voice and bared fangs that he isn't the last Howler. Then she surrenders the scepter and runs away.

A news report lets us know the sheriff died and the FBI is investigating the whole situation. We see Colt steal a car from a guy who makes fun of his clothes and... that's the end, although the credits inform us that, like James Bond and most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Colt will return.

Look, I didn't expect much out of this movie, despite the glorious title. The acting was better than I anticipated and the production solid if unspectacular, but the lack of internal logic sunk what could have been a crazy horror adventure.

I realize I'm complaining about logic in reference to a movie about a cowboy hunting biker werewolves, but I'm not asking for everything to make sense. I'm OK with flimsy werewolf rules. Colt says they have wolf-like abilities during the day but get supercharged under a full moon. Fine. I don't even care that Price wolfed out at the climax for no reason.

It's a little mind-boggling that the sheriff didn't call for backup from out of town, but I imagine that was largely due to budgetary concerns. I do give him credit for instituting a curfew the night of the big showdown, which makes him a better steward of public safety than the sheriff in the 2018 “Halloween” reboot.

Real world cost-cutting is also likely why several deaths take place off-camera, including the one deputy I forgot existed. It's not like they needed any more graphic violence. The subtlety ship sailed when Price ripped out and ate a biker's heart.

There's a lot going on with this movie, and it's pretty clear a lot was cut out, even beyond the deleted scenes included on the DVD. Why did Lucy have silver bullets? How did she become a werewolf, since it was made clear that only a bite, not a scratch, causes the transformation? Where did she find the scepter?

I don't need all the pieces to fit, but I at least need to be distracted from the fact that they don't. And this movie doesn't, no matter how great the title is.**

* - If you're wondering why she or her husband had silver bullets, so was I. And I still am.

** - Really great.